System and method of decoupling and exposing computing device originated location information

ABSTRACT

A system and method is provided to determine location information of a portable computing device and, in particular, to a secure and scalable system and method of decoupling and exposing handset originated location information to third parties. The system includes a location platform to determine location information of a remote user, and an encryption service configured to secure the location information of the remote user and send the secure location information to a content provider.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/114,316, filed May 2, 2008, the contents of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally relates to a system and method to determinelocation information of a portable computing device and, in particular,to a secure and scalable system and method of decoupling and exposinghandset originated location information to third parties.

BACKGROUND

Faced with an increasingly difficult challenge in growing both averagerevenue per user (ARPU) and numbers of subscribers, wireless carriersare trying to develop a host of new products, services, and businessmodels based on data services. One such service is location services,which provide information specific to a location. It is expected thatlocation based services will generate additional business for thecarrier, from both the mobile user and content providers.

For the mobile user as well as the service provider (wireless carriersand content provider), location-based services offer many opportunities.For example, location-based services can increase revenue of the serviceprovider, e.g., network carrier and content provider, while improvingservices to end users, e.g., mobile users. Some examples oflocation-based services that can be provided to the mobile user include:

-   -   Providing the nearest business or service, such as an ATM or        restaurant;    -   Providing alerts, such as notification of a sale on gas or        warning of a traffic jam; and    -   Providing weather reports which are germane to the location        where the user is currently located, etc.

For the network carrier, location-based services provide value add byenabling services such as:

-   -   Resource tracking with dynamic distribution (e.g., Taxis,        service people, rental equipment, doctors, fleet scheduling);    -   Finding people or information for the user (e.g., person by        skill (doctor), business directory, navigation, weather,        traffic, room schedules, stolen phone, emergency 911);    -   Proximity-based notification (push or pull) (e.g., targeted        advertising, buddy list, common profile matching (dating),        automatic airport check-in); and    -   Proximity-based actuation (push or pull) (e.g., payment based        upon proximity.

While the potential of these services is obviously great, and there is aconsiderable amount of interest with respect to these services, thereare a number of issues that have to date limited the actual rollout anddeployment of these services. These issues include for example,

-   -   Wireless service providers have not yet determined the        appropriate authorization model around these services, in order        to protect consumer privacy and conform to a rapidly evolving        regulatory environment;    -   There are challenges being faced by the wireless service        provider community with respect to the actual revenue generating        services to roll out and the priority with which this should        happen;    -   External content providers who hold the keys to content are        hesitant to allow service providers access to top tier content        (e.g., movies and music, etc.), preferring to maintain their        existing relationships with their subscribers; and    -   Location platforms (i.e., network carrier equipment used to        pinpoint location of user) which are centrally housed in carrier        networks (especially in current 3G networks) have known issues        with respect to throughput, latency, in terms of actual location        transactions, etc. Also, cell sector dips (manner in which to        determine user locations (either coarse or fine granularity))        are expensive, with precise fixes even more resource expensive.

In addition, for purposes of location based services, external contentproviders typically request location from the carrier domain on atransactional basis. For example, a weather service content providerwould typically request location information pertaining to a subscriberas soon as a request was received from the handset, resulting inaddition latency received by this request from a subscriber perspective.It is also known that the process for a third party to gain access to acarrier's location platform is a long and expensive process because thethird party has to build the integration infrastructure and the carriermust set up their location platform to accept and throttle the requests.There is also a certification and shakeout period, which can be anexpensive and slow process.

Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficienciesand limitations described hereinabove.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the invention, a system comprises a locationplatform to determine location information of a remote user, and anencryption service configured to secure the location information of theremote user and send the secure location information to a contentprovider.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for obtaining locationspecific content comprises intercepting an HTTP request from a remoteuser and scrambling location information of the remote user. Thescrambled location information is inserted into a header of the HTTPrequest. The scrambled location information is sent to a contentprovider.

In another aspect of the invention, a computer program product comprisesa computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in themedium. The computer program product includes at least one componentoperable to: determine location information of a remote user; interceptan HTTP request from the remote user; scramble the location informationand insert the scrambled location information into a header of the HTTPrequest; and transmit the scrambled location information to a contentprovider.

In yet another aspect of the invention, a method is provided fordeploying an application for securely providing location information.The method comprises providing a computer infrastructure being operableto: intercept an HTTP request from the remote user; scramble thelocation information and insert the scrambled location information intoa header of the HTTP request; and transmit the scrambled locationinformation to a content provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described in the detailed description whichfollows, in reference to the noted plurality of drawings by way ofnon-limiting examples of exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a general schematic overview of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative environment for implementing the steps inaccordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of an exemplary process in accordance withaspects of the invention; and

FIGS. 4 and 5 show alternative embodiments implementing aspects of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention generally relates to a system and method to determinelocation information of a computing device. In particular, the presentinvention provides a secure and scalable system and method of decouplingand exposing handset originated location information to third parties inorder to obtain location specific content from a content provider.Advantageously, the invention simplifies the location retrieval forthird party content providers while continuing to offer location as arevenue generating service for service providers (network carriers).

As content providers are working at a frantic pace to make their contentmore mobile friendly, the present invention will allow the serviceproviders to cater to handset based consumers without the need forcontent providers to build a new infrastructure for the dissemination oftheir content. Also, the present invention improves the operationalefficiency associated with realizing location sharing between networkcarriers and trusted third parties (content providers) for the purposeof providing location information to the content provider which, inturn, can provide location specific content (e.g., weather report) tothe user (handheld device). By using the system and method, the user nolonger has to manually specify ZIP codes or other location identifiersto use location based services, when they roam into a differentlocation.

In implementation, the present invention provides a mechanism ofsecurely providing the location information to the trusted third partywithout any major modifications to the existing infrastructure of thenetwork carrier. (This is compared to current systems in which adaptinga web site to obtain location information means that an existing contentprovider has to implement major infrastructure changes to accommodatelocation (e.g., integrate with the carrier infrastructure)). Thus, thepresent invention allows for the reuse of the existing OTA (Over theAir) provisioning infrastructure that network carriers have investedsignificant dollars in already, with minimum adaptation to supporthandset agents on MIDP and non-MIDP compliant handheld devices. Thepresent invention also allows for network carriers to share locationinformation with partners without compromising privacy, which is anissue facing the commercialization of location based services. Also,this invention provides the network carriers viable means of protectingtheir investments and a path to realize better ARPU (Average Revenue perUnit) from location based services in view of devices with A-GPSchipsets which can send location information directly to third partiesand thus bypass the carrier pipe.

The present invention also relies on the existence of a basicauthorization model and assumes that subscribers, service providers(e.g., network carriers) and content providers have opted into theappropriate services (e.g., location based services) and subsequentsub-services (e.g., location based weather services). In embodiments,the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways in order toobtain content from a content provider based on location information.These methods can include, for example, detecting location resident inheader information of an HTTP request sent by the handheld device,securely bundling the location information, service subscriptioninformation and content request in the HTTP header with an authorizationkey and providing such information to an appropriate content provider.The content provider can then use the location information to providethe appropriate location specific content to the requesting party,without the need for building the integration infrastructure, setting uptheir own location platform to accept and throttle the requests, orrequesting certification and shakeout period from the network carrier.

In embodiments, the location information can be obtained by an agentsitting locally on the handheld device (also referred to as a handset,PDA, mobile computing device, etc.), at a service provider or networkcarrier infrastructure. The agent can be used to determine locationinformation using many different methodologies. By way of one example, alocal agent residing on the handheld device can use locally cachedlocation information obtained by GPS, A-GPS or mechanisms other than thetelecommunications network in order to determine location information.In other embodiments, the agent can obtain information from controlplane locating, e.g., the service provider (e.g., network carrier)obtains the location based on the signal-strength of the closestcell-phone towers. The system of the invention requires no reversetunneling or reverse proxying infrastructure.

The signal provided to the carrier may be, for example, a wirelessapplication protocol (WAP). Those of skill should recognize that WAPenables access to the Internet from a handheld device. For example, aWAP browser provides all of the basic services of a computer based webbrowser but simplified to operate within the restrictions of thehandheld device. Those of skill in the art should also appreciate thatthe present invention is not limited to WAP applications, but may beimplemented using any wireless data protocol such as, for example, theJapanese i-mode system.

EXEMPLARY SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

FIG. 1 shows a general schematic overview of the present invention.Specifically, in implementation, a handheld device 100 will send an HTTPrequest to a content provider 300 over a network carrier(infrastructure) 200. In use, each HTTP request travels across theinfrastructure of the network carrier 200 before being routed throughthe Internet to the content provider 300 (destination site). Beforeleaving the infrastructure of the network carrier 200, a uniquescrambled (encrypted) component containing the user's locationinformation is added to the HTTP request. An authorizing key may also besent to the content provider in order to gain authorization to thelocation information.

The location information may be obtained directly from the locationplatform (on the network carrier infrastructure 200) or, optionally, onan agent residing locally on the handheld device 100. In eitherscenario, the location platform or local agent intercepts the HTTPstream and inserts the location information into the header of the HTTPrequest. The user's location information can contain different levels ofprecision such as:

-   -   Coarse location (cell sector) along with a timestamp associated        with when the fix was made;    -   Precise location along with a timestamp associated with when the        fix was made; or    -   A data structure that contains both coarse and fine location.

The content provider 300 can access the HTTP request and in particularthe user's location information by many different methodologies. Forexample, the network carrier 200 can provide the content provider 300with a decryption key that expires in a set amount of time and/or aftera predetermine limit of uses. Alternatively, the network carrier 300 (orservice provider) can provide a network carrier hosted decryptionservice (API) that accepts the encrypted location data from the user'sHTTP request (and/or ID of the content provider 300 and/or handhelddevice 100). In this latter scenario, the network carrier hosteddecryption service would return the unencrypted user's location to thecontent provider 300. The network carrier 200 hosted decryption servicecan also enforce a limited number of decryption requests per timeperiod, etc. The API call back to the network carrier 200 issignificantly less intensive than the currently available location call.

In embodiments, a charging model can be implemented to increase revenueof both the network carrier 200 and the content provider 300. Forexample, the network carrier 200 can charge the content provider 300 forthe location information services on a per request basis, type and/oramount of requested content, etc. Additionally, the network carrier 200can charge differently for decrypting coarse location versus finelocation or based on a subscription and/or other fee agreement. On theother hand, the content provider 300 can charge the end user (handhelddevice 100) for specific content, on a per request fee, on asubscription basis or other charging scheme.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative environment 10 for managing the processesin accordance with the invention. To this extent, the environment 10includes a server 12 that can perform the processes described herein. Inparticular, the server 12 includes a computing device 14, which can beresident on an infrastructure of a network carrier, a content providerserver, or other third party service provider (any of which is generallyrepresented as reference numeral 200 in FIG. 1).

The computing device 14 includes a Management Tool (Agent) 14 aconfigured to make computing device 14 operable to perform the servicesdescribed herein. The implementation of the Management Tool 14 a willprovide a speedy and efficient way in which partners (e.g., contentproviders and network carriers) are boarded onto location platformswithin the carrier network. By way of illustration, the Management Tool14 a can intercept the HTTP request, determine location and servicesubscription information of the user, encrypt such information and sendit to the content provider, without the need for any majorinfrastructure overhaul by either the network carrier or contentprovider.

More specifically, in one implementation, the Management Tool 14 adetermines a location of the handheld device using control planelocating methodologies. The Management Tool 14 a can also be providedwith the location information from a local agent residing on thehandheld device. For example, the local agent can obtain locationinformation by GPS, A-GPS or mechanisms other than thetelecommunications network. The Management Tool 14 a can also determinewhether the user is entitled to certain services/content by using, forexample, a simple look-up table that matches the ID of the handhelddevice to available content/services. This look-up table can also beresident on a server at the content provider, and periodically updatedby the service provider.

As this information is obtained, the Management Tool 14 a can insert anauthorizing key (e.g., via encryption) into the header of the HTTPrequest which, in turn, is forwarded to a specific content provider. Theauthorizing key may be obtained based on many different charging modelsas described herein. The authorizing key ensures secure transmission ofthe deliver location information to a content provider and, inembodiments, provides authorization to use the location information forlocation specific content dissemination. The content provider can openthe HTTP request, decrypt the information (or request the contentprovider to decrypt the information), read the information, (e.g.,location information, requested content, etc.) and provide the requestedlocation-based content to the user through the carrier infrastructure.

In embodiments different charging models are contemplated by the presentinvention. For example, the service provider or network carrier cancharge the content provider on a per request basis, bulk basis or flatrate model for the end user location information. A fee can also bebased on the type of location information provided to the contentprovider, e.g., fine or coarse location. Any of these models will beless expensive than the expenditures needed to build and maintain astandalone infrastructure for such services. In return, the contentproviders can generate revenue from the end user by charging a flat fee,per use charge, etc. for the location based content.

The computing device 14 also includes a processor 20, the memory 22A, anI/O interface 24, and a bus 26. The memory 22A can include local memoryemployed during actual execution of program code, bulk storage, andcache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some programcode in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved frombulk storage during execution. In addition, the computing deviceincludes random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), and aCPU.

The computing device 14 is in communication with the external I/Odevice/resource 28 and the storage system 22B. For example, the I/Odevice 28 can comprise any device that enables an individual to interactwith the computing device 14 or any device that enables the computingdevice 14 to communicate with one or more other computing devices usingany type of communications link. The external I/O device/resource 28 maybe for example, the handheld device.

In general, the processor 20 executes computer program code, which isstored in the memory 22A and/or storage system 22B. While executingcomputer program code, the processor 20 can read and/or write datato/from memory 22A, storage system 22B, and/or I/O interface 24. Theprogram code executes the processes of the invention. The bus 26provides a communications link between each of the components in thecomputing device 14.

The computing device 14 can comprise any general purpose computingarticle of manufacture capable of executing computer program codeinstalled thereon (e.g., a personal computer, server, handheld device,etc.). However, it is understood that the computing device 14 is onlyrepresentative of various possible equivalent-computing devices that mayperform the processes described herein. To this extent, in embodiments,the functionality provided by the computing device 14 can be implementedby a computing article of manufacture that includes any combination ofgeneral and/or specific purpose hardware and/or computer program code.In each embodiment, the program code and hardware can be created usingstandard programming and engineering techniques, respectively.

Similarly, the server 12 is only illustrative of various types ofcomputer infrastructures for implementing the invention. For example, inembodiments, the server 12 comprises two or more computing devices(e.g., a server cluster) that communicate over any type ofcommunications link, such as a network, a shared memory, or the like, toperform the process described herein. Further, while performing theprocesses described herein, one or more computing devices on the server12 can communicate with one or more other computing devices external tothe server 12 using any type of communications link. The communicationslink can comprise any combination of wired and/or wireless links; anycombination of one or more types of networks (e.g., the Internet, a widearea network, a local area network, a virtual private network, etc.);and/or utilize any combination of transmission techniques and protocols.

In embodiments, the invention provides a business method that performsthe steps of the invention on a subscription, advertising, and/or feebasis. That is, a service provider, such as a Solution Integrator, couldoffer to perform the processes described herein. In this case, theservice provider can create, maintain, deploy, support, etc., thecomputer infrastructure that performs the process steps of the inventionfor one or more customers. In return, the service provider can receivepayment from the customer(s) under a subscription and/or fee agreementand/or the service provider can receive payment from the sale ofadvertising content to one or more third parties.

EXEMPLARY PROCESSES

FIG. 3 is a flow chart implementing steps of the invention, which may beimplemented in the environment of FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 3 may equallyrepresent a high-level block diagram of the invention. The steps of FIG.3 may be implemented and executed from either a server, in a clientserver relationship, or they may run on a user workstation (which can begenerally represented in FIGS. 1 and 2). Additionally, the invention cantake the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely softwareembodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and softwareelements. Software includes but is not limited to firmware, residentsoftware, microcode, etc. Furthermore, the invention can take the formof a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable orcomputer-readable medium providing program code for use by or inconnection with a computer or any instruction execution system. Thesoftware and/or computer program product can be implemented in theenvironment of FIGS. 1 and 2. For the purposes of this description, acomputer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus thatcan contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program foruse by or in connection with the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic,optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (orapparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of acomputer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory,magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory(RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an opticaldisk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read onlymemory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary process in which the service providerand content provider initiate and establish a relationship in accordancewith the invention. In particular, at step S100, the content providerand service provider initiate an attempt to establish a relationship bywhich location exposure is enabled. In embodiments, at step S100, thecontent provider requests this service from the service provider, e.g.,network carrier or third party service provider.

At step A200, the service provider and content provider decide the typeof service that is required. For example, at step S200, a determinationis made as to whether coarse or fine location (or both) is required andwhich content will be available to an end user, based on locationinformation.

At step S300, a charging model will be established between the serviceprovider and the content provider. The charging model may be, forexample, a requirement that accounting records from the participatingnodes in the call flow be sent into the carrier platform, a flat feebased service or a fee based on coarse or fine location information or ahost of other usage options as discussed herein and equivalents thereof.After this, the actual deployment model is finalized. This could resultin several scenario models as discussed in more detail below. Forexample, at step S400, the carrier network may determine whether the enduser is entitled to such services, in which case the carrier networkwill issue the credentials (authorizing key) to the content provider.The carrier network will also determine whether location information wasobtained locally at the handheld device.

If the location information was not obtained locally at the handhelddevice, the process continues to the third party content provider. Thatis, at this phase, the location information (obtained by the locationplatform) and the credentials are securely sent to the third partycontent provider. The third party content provider can then decrypt thelocation information via the methodologies discussed herein. Therequested location sensitive content can then be sent back to the enduser.

If the location information was obtained locally at the handheld device,the process continues to S500. At step S500, the network carrier willupdate the network routing proxy. More specifically, at step S500, thenetwork carrier establishes a routing model which may include, forexample, a look-up table (e.g., stored in the storage 22B) which storesrouting information, matching information between the end user andcontent provider, user ID information, etc. In embodiments, the networkcarrier and/or service provider can white-list sites where locationinformation can be sent and blacklist sites where location informationcannot be sent. The proxy is also configured to scramble (encrypt) a tag(location information) in the HTTP header of the request, such that thelocation information in the HTTP request can be securely transmitted tothe content provider.

Regardless of the proxy in the carrier domain, decryption can be localto the content provider or hosted as a service exposed by the serviceprovider. As such, at step S600, a determination is made as to whetherthe decryption will be managed locally (at the network carrier orcontent provider). If the decryption is to be handled locally, at stepS700, the message is decrypted. The process will continue to the contentprovider, which will provide the location specific content. If thedecryption is not to be handled locally, the process will continue tothe content provider, which will decrypt the location information,amongst other possible encrypted data.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 4 and 5 show alternative embodiments implementing aspects of theinvention. FIGS. 4 and 5 may equally represent high-level flow diagramsimplementing processes in accordance with aspects of the invention. BothFIGS. 4 and 5 show a handheld device 100, a carrier network 200 and acontent provider 300. The carrier network 200 includes an encryptionservice, location platform, decrypting service and charging platform(all of which was generally referred to as the Management Tool 14 a),which is described in more detail below.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the handheld device 100 sends anHTTP request to the content provider 300. The carrier network 200intercepts the HTTP request and inserts scrambled location informationinto the request, either obtained from a location platform or from thedevice itself. In FIG. 4, the scrambled location information is providedby the encryption service (proxy). In the contemplated embodiment ofFIG. 4, the location platform provides the location information(although in other embodiments, the location platform can receive thecached location information from the handheld device). The carrierinfrastructure 200 sends the encrypted information (locationinformation, user ID, etc.) to the content provider 300, which decryptsthe location information with a decryption key obtained from the networkcarrier 200 or service provider. The decryption key allows the contentprovider 300 to identify the handheld device, look for the key andunscramble the embedded location information in the header of the HTTPrequest.

Alternatively, the network carrier 200 (or other service provider) canprovide decryption services using, for example, a decryption service asdiscussed above (also referred to as a decryption agent). The decryptionservice allows the content provider 300 to decrypt location informationfrom the HTTP header request. The network carrier 200 (or serviceprovider) can provide the optional local decryption service negotiatedbefore hand as part of the provisioning flow. Thus, the decryption agent(e.g., decryption service) allows the network carrier 200 to identifythe handheld device, look for the key and unscramble the embeddedlocation information in the header of the HTTP request for the contentprovider.

The network carrier infrastructure 200 also includes a charging platformwhich is configured to receive accounting information from all theparticipants in the runtime call flow. For example, all runtimeinfrastructures can be optionally connected to the charging platform inthe service provider domain so as to facilitate the accounting andsubsequent charging and revenue settlement processes. As a furthercontemplated embodiment, transaction detail records (TDR) can beprovided to the charging platform from components of the infrastructureof the network carrier 200 to facilitate the accounting and subsequentcharging and revenue settlement processes. The TDR can include, forexample, the length and time of the transmission, the requested content,the amount of content acquired, or other information necessary tocalculate a fee to charge to the content provider.

In FIG. 5, the handheld device 100 includes a local agent which cacheslocation information from a standard Assisted GPS (A-GPS) chipset localto the handheld device 100. The local agent also has the ability tointercept HTTP traffic emanating from the browser of the handheld devicein a configurable manner such that location information can be providedto the network carrier 200. Much like the embodiment of FIG. 4, thenetwork carrier 200 can then encrypt the location information andprovide such encrypted information to the content provider 300. Inembodiments, the network carrier and/or handheld device and/or serviceprovider can white-lists sites where location can be sent and blacklistssites where location cannot be sent.

In this implementation, the network carrier 200 (service provider)includes the location platform. The network carrier 200 (serviceprovider) can also include the charging platform as discussed above.Also, in this implementation, the decryption is provided by the contentprovider 300; although, it is contemplated by the present invention thatthe network carrier 200 (service provider) can include decryptionservices. Also, the TDR can be provided to the carrier 200 from theremaining participants, 100, 300.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

By way of an example, a free weather web site utilizes advertisement asa main source of revenue. This site wants to test the impact of locationbased services and advertisement, but by implementing the invention itno longer has to go through the expensive and complex process ofintegrating with a carrier's location platform. Instead, the weatherwebsite simply acquires a trial decryption key or a trial client ID fromthe network carrier for a limited amount of time. After making minimalchanges to their web application to access the user's location from theHTTP request, the site no longer has to prompt the user for theirlocation. Additionally, the advertisements on the web site are nowtargeted based on the user's location. In this way, the weather websiteexperiences increased user traffic because their website can offerimmediate local weather on the first page. The weather website alsoexperiences an increase in advertisement clicks because they are morerelevant to the user. The weather website considers this a successfultrial of location based services and signs up for a more permanent planwith the network carrier to continue their access to a locationdecryption method.

In use, a subscriber turns on his/her mobile browser on his handhelddevice and goes to a weather site. The handset housed agent (or theproxy agent on the carrier network) intercepts the HTTP stream and addsa scrambled location tag to the header. The weather site receives therequest and as a result of its arrangement with the network carrier, hasthe key to descramble the tag in the HTTP header. The weather site cannow determine the subscriber coarse or fine (cell sector) location andprovide location sensitive weather information to the subscriber. Thesubscriber can now plan his/her activities based on the locationspecific weather report.

While the invention has been described in terms of embodiments, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practicedwith modifications and in the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a processor; one or morecomputer readable hardware storage devices; and program instructionsstored on the one or more computer readable hardware storage devices forexecution by the processor, the program instructions comprising: programinstructions to determine whether a location of a remote user wasobtained locally at a handheld device of the remote user; programinstructions to determine location information of the remote user thatis outside an infrastructure of the carrier network; programinstructions to determine whether decryption of the location informationfor the content provider will be handled by the carrier network; programinstructions to secure the location information of the remote user;program instructions to insert the secure location information into amessage; and program instructions to forward the message including thesecure location information directly to a content provider; programinstructions to generate and provide a decryption key to the contentprovider configured to decrypt the secure location information; programinstructions to determine whether the remote user is entitled tolocation services or content of the content provider; programinstructions to determine whether to provide the decryption key to thecontent provider based on a charging model of the content provider;program instructions to receive cached location information of theremote user from the remote user; program instructions to scramble thecached location information in the header of the HTTP request; andprogram instructions to bundle service subscription information and anauthorization key in the HTTP header with the cached locationinformation.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a locationplatform determines coarse and fine location of the remote user.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the program instructions further comprise:program instructions to intercept the message, wherein the message isthe HTTP request sent by the remote user to the content provider via thecarrier network; program instructions to insert the secure locationinformation in a header of the HTTP request; and program instructions toforward the HTTP request including the secure location information tothe content provider.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the programinstructions further comprise program instructions to receive a decryptrequest from the content provider.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein:the content provider is configured to generate and provide locationspecific content to the remote user; and the remote user caches andencrypts the cached location information from an Assisted GlobalPositioning System (A-GPS) in the remote user.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructionsto charge a fee to the content provider for the location information. 7.The system of claim 6, wherein the program instructions to charge thefee charge the content provider a flat fee or a fee based on coarse orfine location information.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein: theinfrastructure of the carrier network is separate from the remote user;the content provider is separate from the infrastructure of the carriernetwork and the remote user; and the program instructions to determinethe location information perform the determination in response to arequest transmitted by the remote user to the content provider via theinfrastructure of the carrier network and provide the locationinformation to an encryption service.
 9. The system of claim 1, whereinthe system comprises a computer infrastructure of a carrier network,including a location platform and an encryption service, which is atleast one of supported, deployed, maintained, and created by a serviceprovider.
 10. A method for obtaining location specific contentcomprising: intercepting, by an encryption service of a carrier network,an HTTP request sent from a remote user that is outside aninfrastructure of the carrier network to a content provider; determiningthat a location of the remote user was not obtained locally at ahandheld device of the remote user; receiving cached locationinformation of the remote user from the remote user; based on thedetermining, scrambling, by the encryption service, the cached locationinformation of the remote user and inserting the scrambled cachedlocation information into a header of the HTTP request; sending, by theencryption service, the HTTP request including the scrambled cachedlocation information directly to the content provider; providing adecryption key to the content provider which ensures secure transmissionof the location information and provides authorization to the contentprovider to decrypt and use the location information for locationspecific content dissemination; determining whether the remote user isentitled to services or content of the content provider; determiningwhether to provide the decryption key to the content provider based on acharging model of the content provider; and bundling servicesubscription information and an authorization key in the HTTP headerwith the cached location information, wherein the content provider isconfigured to generate and provide the location specific content to theremote user.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determiningthe location information of the remote user.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the determining location information includes one of: finelocation, coarse location and a combination of fine location and coarselocation.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the location informationis received from the remote user by an agent locally resident on acomputing device.
 14. The method of claim 10, further comprisingcharging a content provider for the scrambled location information. 15.The method of claim 10, further comprising providing decryption servicesto the content provider in order to descramble the scrambled locationinformation.
 16. A computer program product comprising a tangiblecomputer readable hardware storage device having readable programinstructions stored on the computer readable hardware storage device,the program instructions comprising: program instructions to obtain, byan encryption service, cached location information of a remote user thatis outside an infrastructure of the carrier network; programinstructions to intercept, by the encryption service, an HTTP requesttransmitted from the remote user to a content provider using the carriernetwork; program instructions to determine whether the cached locationinformation was obtained locally at a handheld device of the remoteuser; program instructions to determine whether decryption of locationinformation for the content provider will be handled by the carriernetwork; program instructions to scramble, by the encryption service,the cached location information and insert the scrambled cached locationinformation into a header of the HTTP request; program instructions totransmit, by the encryption service, the scrambled cached locationinformation directly to the content provider; program instructions toprovide a decryption key to the content provider configured to decryptthe scrambled cached location information based on a charging model ofthe content provider; program instructions to generate and provide adecryption key to the content provider configured to decrypt the securelocation information; program instructions to determine whether theremote user is entitled to services or content of the content provider;and program instructions to bundle service subscription information andan authorization key in the HTTP header with the cached locationinformation.
 17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein theprogram instructions further comprise program instructions to charge afee to the content provider for the location information.
 18. The systemof claim 1, wherein: the system comprises an infrastructure of thecarrier network, including an encryption service, a decryption service,and a charging platform; the message is the HTTP request transmitted bythe remote user to the content provider; the carrier network isconfigured to intercept the HTTP request; the location platform isconfigured to scramble the location information; based on adetermination that the location information was not obtained locally ata handheld device of the remote user, the encryption service isconfigured to: obtain the scrambled location information from thelocation platform; embed the scrambled location information into theHTTP request; send the HTTP request with the scrambled locationinformation to the content provider; and provide a transaction detailrecord to the charging platform; based on a determination that thedecryption of location information for the content provider will behandled by the carrier network, the decryption service is configured to:receive a decrypt request from the content provider; and provide adecryption key to the content provider for unscrambling the scrambledlocation information; and the charging platform is configured to chargea fee to the content provider based on the transaction detail record.19. The system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions furthercomprise: program instructions to provide the authorizing key to thecontent provider based on a determination that the remote user isentitled to the location services; and program instructions to, based ona determination that the location information was obtained locally at ahandheld device of the remote user, establish a routing proxy includinga routing table which stores routing information and matchinginformation between the remote user and the content provider.